Surveying methods and instruments in the Sixth Book of Ieronimo Pico Fonticulano’s treatise on Geometry (1597)

Many treatises on geometry were written in the XVI century. Ieronimo Pico Fonticulano in the sixty book of his treatise titled Geometria describes the surveying instruments and their methodological and operative use. Aim of the paper is studying the instruments described by Fonticulano and, thanks to the numerous applicative examples, analysing the surveying methods. It focuses on instrument’s geometry and materials, their components, the using modalities, the instrumental positions, the working principles, the main application allowed. Last but not least instruments and methods are studied in relation to their historical context and to the ones presented in other treatises of the same age.